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©DPHUGHT DEPOSIT. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



i -J — ' i ^L_ \^ i A_ 



OF 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY THORNWELL HAYNES. 

FBOFESSOR OF HlSTORl ASD ENGLISH, LEESVILLE COLLEGE, R. C. 



Published bv B. C. DtjFre, Columbia; S r 
Copyrighted, i894. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress in the year 1894, 

IJv 15. ('. DuPre, 
In the Office of the Librarian »>!' Congress at Washington. 






STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Executive Chamber, 

Columbia, October 8, 1H94. 
Mr. B. C. DuPee, Columbia, S. C: 

Dear Sir. I have made a hasty examination of the sketch 
if my life, written by Mr. Haynes for you, and rind its state- 
ment «>f facts correct. 

Yours respectfully, 

B. R. TILLMAN. 



PREFACE. 



When it first became known among my acquaintances that 1 thought 
of writing a sketch of Governor Tillman's life [ received the following 
letter from a very intimate friend : 



•• April 8, 1894. 

''Dear Friend: 1 am glad to learn that we are to have a biography of 
so interesting and marked a character as Governor Tillman, and 1 should 
esteem it a privilege to render any assistance towards it in my power. 

"The great charm of all biography, however short or concise the 
sketch, is the truth, told simply, directly, boldly, charitably. 

" But this is also the great difficulty. A human life is long. A human 
character is complicated. It is often inconsistent with itself, and it 
requires nice judgment to proportion it in such a way as to make the 
book correspond with the man, and make the same impression upon the 
reader that the man did upon those who knew him best.- 

" Your difficulty will be to present fairly his less favorable side ; but 
upon this depends all the value, and much of the interest of the work. 

'"Your true friend, 



By the wisdom contained in this letter we have tried to abide, pre- 
senting the ideas and incidents unadorned save by the chaste adornment 
which truth alone can give. 

We be<; to acknowledge our indebtedness to Governor Tillman him- 
self and thank him for the majority of facts related. 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. — Boyhood. 

Chatper II. — Manhood. 

Chapter III. — Campaign of 1890 and 1892. 

Chapter IV. — Campaign for Senator. 

Chapter V. — Extracts From Best Speeches. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

GOVERNOR B. R. TILLMAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOYHOOD. 

To give to the public a collection of the successive por- 
traits of a man is to tell his affairs openly, and so betray inti- 
mate personalities. We are often found quarreling with the 
tone of the public press, because it yields to what is called 
the public demand .to be told both the private affairs of 
noteworthy persons and the trivial details and circumstances 
of those who arc insignificant. Sonic one has said that a 
sincere man willingly answers any question, however personal, 
that is asked out of interest, but instantly resents a question 
that has its impulse in curiosity; and that one's instinct 
always detects the difference. This is said to be a wise rule 
of conduct; but beyond lies the wide)- subject of our right 
to possess ourselves of personal in formation about those 
we admire, although we have a vague remembrance, even in 
these days, of the belief of old fashioned and decorous peo- 
ple, that subjects, not persons, are alone fitting material for 
conversation. 

But there is an honest, interest, which is as noble a thing 
as curiosity is contemptible, and it is to gratify this interest 
that we undertake to write a short, biography of Governor 
Benjamin Ryan Tillman, and it is this interest we hope the 
reader will entertain as he peruses these pages. 

And why not? Certainly an honest interest should attach 
to the affairs of a mere farmer lad who at one bound has 
risen to the highest gift within the power of th,e people of 
South Carolina. 



BOYIIniip. 



Benjamin Ryan Tillman was born thirteen miles 
north of Augusta, in Merriwether Township, Edge- 
field County, South Carolina, on the eleventh day of 
August, 1847, just at the time when General Scott had 
practically captured the City of Mexico, ending that unjust 
war, which cded to the United States all the vast territory 
now comprised in New Mexico, Utah and California. "Bones 
of four Tillmans lie in a field in Mexico," said Governor 
Tillman in a speech during the campaign for United States 
Senator. One of these was the Governor's eldest brother 
who was killed nt the I tattle of Churubusco. 

He was born about eight miles from the Georgia line, hut 
still in South Carolina — that grand old Commonwealth that 
has given birth to many of the nation's most illustrous 
statesmen. No province in the country gave nobler names 
to the cause of liberty than the Haynes. Pinckneys, Rut- 
ledges; and no State contributed to the Senate in later times 
two greater intellectual giants than John C. Calhoun and 
William C. Preston; and amid the star.- that burn brightest 
in our firmament, South Carolina points with pride to her 
Hugers,Legares. 1'ickens. Lowndes, McDufiies, Haynes, Gads- 
dens, and Sumters, and with no less pride to the Tillmans. 

In every sense the objeel of this sketch is a self-made 
man, sprung from a line of hardy and industrious farmers of 
Revolutionary stock, who depended only upon themselves and 
their God. His ancestors included soldiers on both sides of the 
family who fought in the war for liberty. His father was Ben- 
jamin R. Tillman, whose ancestors had ('migrated from the 
State of Virginia to South Carolina prior to the Revolution- 
ary War and settled in Edgefield District. Here it was his 
grandfather had settled to farm, and even down to the grand- 
children, and by Benjamin, the youngest of eleven, the same 
occupation was carried on. Reared upon a farm, the char- 
acter of the whole Tillman family was unconsciously molded 
and formed by surroundings which gave strength and stead- 
fastness. All the Tillmans have been known to be exception- 
ally bright, and the men with whom young Benjamin came 



r.oYTionn. 



into contact during his boyhood were generally without 
the refinements of life, but they were rugged, sturdy and 
self-reliant, of powerful physique and healthy intellects. 
His association with these hardy, vigorous men imbued him 
with unconquerable energy, indomitable will, and a stern 
sense of honor which, all through his manhood, has made 
him a master spirit among men. Is it wonderful that from 
this sturdy family of Tillmans, that many years before had 
come from the State of Pennsylvania, stopping over for 
awhile in the State of Virginia, and at last reaching 
South Carolina, the future orator, statesman, Governor, 
should spring? South Carolinians, as indeed every- 
one, should feel a certain joy in the power of our coun- 
try to develop men like this. It must speak something for 
the credit of a country when a man can be brought from the 
bosom of the people and lifted into the highest stations of 
place and power without in the slightest degree losing his 
identity with them. Possesssing few of this world's goods 
and with scant education, his forefathers settled within 
the borders of South Carolina. And what if they were 
poor, have not the world's greatest men been rocked 
in the cradle of poverty? The habits of living in the 
territory to which the Tillmans had come were primitive; 
the manners were agreeably free ; conviviality at the table 
was the fashion, and strong expletives had not gone out of 
use in conversation. Society was the reverse of intellectual; 
the aristocracy were the merchants and planters; what lite- 
rary culture found expression was formed on English models. 
These were the surroundings in which the boy's talent was 
to develop. 

Upon a gentle eminence overlooking the surrounding coun- 
try was built the substantial house which yet stands in good 
preservation in open view of a richly cultivated country 
around. Here was a particular seat of hospitality, the pre- 
siding genius of which was the gentle wife and mother, who 
tempered the atmosphere with the sweet influence of charity 
and love. Essentially clever and persistent, she was pos- 






10 BOYHOOD. 



sessed of a rare degree of patience, which stood her in better 
stead than a more aggressive spirit. Her maiden name was 
Sophia Handcock. Many have described her life as being 
outwardly a model of consistent goodness, and within a shrine 
where sacrifice of self was joy; obligations were opportuni- 
ties, and duties benedictions. Benjamin was left under the 
care of this good mother, his lather dying when he was only 
two years old. 

With such a mother and such a home the future leader. 
Governor, statesman began his growth in knowledge, grace 
and power, and rose to the full stature of splendid manhood. 

He was the youngest of eleven children, the petted dar- 
ling of that mother's heart, and being named for his father 
was always the favorite child. By industry and economy 
the father had accumulated a handsome estate, leaving his 
family about fifty slaves and a large plantation. * But her 
favorite maxim was. "Ac1 well your part, there all the honor 
lies." She taught her son to judge men by their acts 
and imt by their clothes, and to treat with respect 
every man who was honest, however poor. The boy was 
made to work and to despise hypocrisy and laziness. Tn 
this respect he was not different from the great ma- 
jority of his neighbors, who, like himself, found the 
healthy and vigorous training by labor in early life the 
best preparation for the mental as well as the physical tasks 
of later life. Not a few of the brightest lights of the intel- 
lectual and moral world have come from homes of poverty. 
Who knows in what minds there may be powers, in what 
hearts there may lie affections, which, if upheld by the 
requisite amount of will power, would produce new 
benefactors of our race! His earliesl associations were with 
people who earned their bread by the honest labor of 
their own hands, and many, like his father, had begun life 
poor but had saved a competence. The impressions thus made 
on his mind were with him always. They touched his heart, in- 
spired his sympathy, and ever since entering upon public 
life havw conspicuously governed hie ideas of duty in every 



BOYHOOD. 11 



one of his official acts. Even as a lad he never forgot that 
it was his duty to learn as well as to labor. There was in 
those days no easy road to learning, but availing himself of 
the intelligent tuition of his mother and occasional old field 
schools, he became imbued with the love of study and made 
rapid progress. 

About this time, when still quite a boy, his mother was 
taken very ill, and it is related of little "Ben," as he was 
called around the house, that he became extremely anxious 
about his mother's condition. Every morning he would tip- 
toe to the curtains that separated the apartment where she 
lay, and pushing them apart would ask how she was. 

In 1861, at fourteen years of age, he entered Bethany 
Academy situated at Liberty Hill in the upper portion of 
Edgefield district. This was an excellent school taught 
by Mr. George Galphin. Here he attended school, glad 
and eager that such an opportunity had been opened to him. 
He continued in Bethany Academy until he was seventeen 
years of age. While in the Academy he acquired a fair 
knowledge of Latin and "less Greek, 1 ' some Geometry and 
Algebra, sufficient to enter the average Sophomore class in 
College. But it was never permitted him to enter the doors 
of a University or College. 

He who has founded colleges and schools, despite the bit- 
terest opposition ; he who has done so much to educate that 
class of people who support the world, never had the op- 
portunity of entering a college himself. The war coming on, 
together with his illness, prevented this. No doubt many a 
budding intellect has been nipped, and the best affections of 
many a young heart have been crushed out by such cruel 
circumstances as these, but Benjamin Tillman rose above 
them. He let nothing come in the way of his one set pur- 
pose of learning. It is interesting to imagine what would 
have been the result if this giant intellect had been trained 
through all the courses that a College or University offers ; 
and yet who can tell ; it might have been for the worse; cer- 
tainly, as things are, they are for the best. 



CHAPTER II. 

MANHOOD. 

There are other citizens of South Carolina earlier asso- 
ciated with the history and progress of the State and illus- 
trious in the nation's annals — Governors, United States 
senators, members of the judiciary, orators closely identified 
with the growth and greatness of the State, who till a large 
space in their country's history; soldiers of high achieve- 
ment in the earlier and later wars of the Republic; men who 
developed matchless qualities and accomplished masterly re- 
sults in the nation's supreme crisis; but from the roll of illus- 
trious names the almost unanimous voice of South Carolina 
calls and points with pride to Benjamin K.Tillman, the young- 
est and latest of her historic men — the Governor, the pride 
of the people, the upright citizen, the incomparable orator, 
and the designation is everywhere received with approval and 
acclaim. In him we find the best representation of the pos- 
sibilities of American Life. Hoy and man, he typifies Ameri- 
can youth and manhood, and illustrates the beneficence and 
glory of free institutions which lie has done so much to es- 
tablish. His early struggles for an education, his lack of 
collegiate training, his youthful yearnings, find a prototype 
in every village, city and hamlet of the land. Such diffi- 
culties have not retarded his progress, but spurred him on to 
higher and nobler endeavor. His push and perseverance, his 
direct and undeviating Life-purpose, his sturdy integrity, has 
been rewarded with large results and exceptional honors. 
Tireless in endeavor, by his indomitable will he overcame 
obstacles, converted embarrassments into opportunities, and 
made harriers but stepping stones to greater things. 

When he left Bethany Academy in July, 1864, he had not 
quite finished t he studies which its course offered, but he gave 
up his Life-cherished plan of obtaining an education, and left 
school for the purpose of entering the Confederate army 



MANHOOD. 13 



to fight for his native State. He has often spoken with re- 
gret of his inability to remain in school. But the call of 
his State was more imperative than his desire to remain in 
school, and he had only been kept there by the pleadings of 
the mother whose word had always been law to him. His 
soul burned with the patriotic ardor which called the South 
to arms, but his mother urged him to wait until he was 
seventeen before leaving school, as he might never have 
the opportunity again if his life was spared. In 
a speech at the annual commencement of the Deaf, 
Dumb and Blind Institute at Cedar Springs several 
years ago ho alluded to this one regret of his life. So pa- 
thetically he pictured it there in the chapel of this institu- 
tion, standing among those many diligent, praiseworthy 
pupils whom God had deprived of many things, but whose 
joy some day will be most complete. Probably there are 
many who read this that will remember the occasion. It 
was an occasion to make one sad, and there Avere few dry 
eyes in the audience when he finished. 

Even the noble duty of serving his State, which by his 
eagerness to enlist seemed to him more as a privilege than a 
duty, was denied him. Ten days after leaving school he 
was taken sick, and for two years was an invalid, 
suffering excruciating pains worse than hardy soldiers 
are brought to bear. Many unjust, slanderous things have 
been given ventilation through the public press and 
on the stump, particularly during his first campaign 
for Governor, in regard to these two years in which 
he lay so dangerously near the grave. Some of his most 
bitter enemies have even declared it all a sham; that his 
sickness was only feigned as a pretext to keep him from 
serving in the war. Such taunts and cowardly insinuations 
are unworthy even the most direful anti-Tillmanite. It was 
at the beginning of these two years of suffering that an ab- 
cess produced by inflammation formed in his left eye. It was 
this that finally brought on the loss of that organ. The 
doctor who attended him during his illness says that this 



14 MAXHOOD. 



inflammation was brought on by the careless use of his eyes. 
Studying by poor lights when no better were afforded, and 
making use of lightwood knot fires in his boyhood to study 
by, occasioned a weakness of his eyes which had at times 
caused some trouble before the illness and fatal inflammation 
came on. Paralysis also visited him while he was prostrated 
and added to his miseries, and the hopes »tha1 were enter- 
tained for his recovery grew very faint. But a kind Provi- 
dence who controls the affairs of men brought matters to a 
different end than that which was feared. A faithful mother 
and a noble sister, Fannie, were with him fco administer to 
every want and extend to him thai sympathy which one's 
own alone can give. 

There are none braver than the Governor, nor more loyal 
to their native land, and had it not been for his sickness 
and his loss of eye, he would have enlisted with the "noble 
few," but his accident was probably the prevention of a 
more unfortunate one had he entered the army. 

In the latter part of 1866 he gradually rallied from his ill- 
ness, and by 1807 was able to go to Florida. It had always 
been the desire of hi- mother to live in the ''Land of 
Flowers." When Benjamin was sufficiently restored to 
health to take this trip and to arrange her farm and affairs 
in South Carolina, he, accompanied by his sister, moved to 
Florida. This was in the early part of 1867. He bought a 
plantation in Marion County and settled there, the inten- 
tion being tor his mother and the rest of the family to 
follow as soon as practicable. For two years he lived in 
this County with his sister, during which time he courted 
Miss Sallie Starke of Georgia. Together with two of his 
sisters he had gone to Elbert, Georgia, early in 1865, to 
escape Sherman's army, which was then en route to Savan- 
nah, and it was while a resident of Elbert County that he 
first met his wife, then a girl of fifteen. The intercourse be- 
tween the invalid boy and the school girl ripened into love. 
and they were married in January. 1868, and Hie young 
couple lived in Florida that year. Mrs. Tillman is the 



MANHOOD. 15 



daughter of Mr. Samuel Starke, of Elbert County, Georgia, 
who was born at Longtown, Fairfield County, South Caro- 
lina. 

She is a woman of culture and refinement, to whose 
beauty of character and patient courage he has been largely 
indebted for his success in life. "Unknown wives of well- 
known men" is a saying quite too applicable these days. 
Somebody asked Miss Frances E. Willard, the great woman 
suffragist, if she was going to attend the World's Columbian 
Exposition, and she said, "No, that she would not go be- 
cause of the neglect to provide for the celebration of the 
part Mrs. Columbus took in the discovery of the new world." 
Miss Willard says that it was Mrs. Columbus who provided 
old Christopher with the charts and the maps and the letters 
of introduction that helped him. She brushed him up, and 
above and beyond all she gave him the courage and hope 
that made him believe in himself, and if old Christopher 
were alive to-day he would cheerfully acknowledge that the 
credit of the discovery of America was greatly due to Mrs. 
Columbus. Miss Starke was a person, in some respects, as 
remarkable as her husband. She was possessed of an extra- 
ordinary good judgment, unwearying kindness and love, an 
elastic cheerfulness, that scarcely anything could subdue, 
and very strong religious feelings. Since she became the 
wife of the Governor she has been constantly trying to aid 
him, and has proven the source of much happiness to him. 
Instead of seeking for enjoyment in display, she has pre- 
ferred economical retirement and great but respectable fru- 
gality, in order that her husband might pursue more thor- 
oughly and easily his favorite studies. Yet with all her 
devoted love, and intense reverence for his talents, she re- 
mained his true friend, and never shrunk from fully 
expressing her opinion upon every matter of duty; and if, 
perchance, she differed from him, she maintained her side of 
the question with the zeal of a true saint. To their union 
three sons and four daughters have been born, all of whom, 
with one exception, are still living. 



16 ' MANHOOD. 






1869 found him again in South Carolina. Bad health re- 
sulting from his stay there, he had returned from Florida, 
and settled in his native County of Edgefield at the old 
homestead, where he devoted himself to farming. In this oc- 
cupation he was most successful . For seven continuous years 
he continued to farm, managing all t he affairs of his mother's 
and his own plantations, unmolested by any affairs outside of 
his broad and well-tilled acres. He t < »< >k do part whatever 
in politics until 1876. At this time his mother's death oc- 
curred, which affected him very much. After this he settled 
upon his portion of the estate, and still continued to farm, 
hut was prominent during the Hampton campaign as an 
aggressive leader in the memorable struggle for white su- 
premacy. Hi' took an active part in the historical Ned Ten- 
uant. Hamburg and Ellenton Riots, proving that his native 
State had no cause to complain of his want of love or devo- 
tion. During these times he was a member of the Edgefield 
Hussars, a famous old cavalry organization. Of this com- 
pany he was elected Captain about 1882, and before be- 
coming Governor in 1890 was always referred to as Captain 
Tillman. He did much for South Carolina during the trou- 
blesome times and dark days of the Hampton campaign and 
struggle. No matter in what situation he was placed he 
met it- requirements with ability, with dignity, and with 
clean-hearted and unshrinking courage. He gained the 
respect and confidence of all he came into contact with dur- 
ing the 1876 campaign. It was then that he put his foot on 
the first round in the ladder of his political life. All the 
enthusiam and patriotism of his' nature came to the surface, 
and ever since he has beeu engaged in diligent and honesl 
service to his State. He still recognized, as he had when hut a 
boy, thai the world was full of opportunity. And thus ithas 
been at every step of his remarkable history. He inspired 
such confidence in every position he held that he not only 
never lost an inch of ground once attained, hut the constant 
and confident demand of those who knew him hest through- 
out his entire career desired his promotion from height to 



MANHOOD. 17 



height as long as there was a position of honor and duty- 
above him. After the stand he took and the courage he 
displayed during 1876 he was asked and begged to enter the 
race for the Legislature, but still in love with his farm life, 
steadily refused the many solicitations of his fellow citizens. 

In 1882 he seemed suddenly to have awakened to a realiza- 
tion of the lack of suitable training for farmers and a more 
diversified system of agriculture, with the creation of new in- 
dustries in South Carolina. In daily contact with his brother 
tillers of the soil he grew towards them and nourished the sym- 
pathy in their interest that became at last the moving factor 
and principle of his life. He realized that the support of the 
world rested upon the farmer and it was the farmer who was 
handicapped more than any other of the sons of men. He 
gave the situation long, patient, careful study, and saw that 
only through systematic training and education could the 
farmer be brought to the plane which Providence meant for 
him to occupy. From this very time he seems to have made 
the deliverance of the agricultural classes his one ruling 
principle in life. It certainly was a Herculean task. But 
who does not see that almost every farmer in South Carolina 
knows more about the government at the present time than 
eight or ten years ago. During his campaign for Senator he 
said in his speech at Anderson, South Carolina : "It has given 
me pleasure throughout this campaign of the State to see and 
talk with you all. You talk more intelligently about our 
affairs of the government, and there is education all along 
the line. Don't let us stop. Let us keep on getting it." 

It is certainly true that nothing has done the industrial 
classes of South Carolina more good in an educational way 
than the Farmers' Alliance. What made Governor Tillman 
a leader is hard to answer. Wherein was his strength is as 
equally hard to answer. His life from the time he first began 
his great work for the agricultural classes of South Carolina 
has conclusively proven that life is character in movement — is 
the visible expression of the sum of human energies in their 
organized activity. The best equipped soldier will win ru 



18 MANHOOD. 



victories in the absence of conflict, and the wisest pro- 
gramme will avail nothing in valuable results in the absence 
of opportunities for its execution. As movement is the con- 
dition of growth, so appropriate occasions must he supplied 
to awaken and stimulate the potent but otherwise latent 
human forces which produce that great work called life. 
We cannot, therefore, conceive of a grand life except when 
we contemplate capacity in conjunction with its appropriate 
and sufficient opportunities. A heroic occasion, crowned by 
a heroic act, sometimes determines before the world a grand 
life, giving not only its quality but supplying its measure. 
Great is he who sees the occasion, embraces it, and clings 
faithfully to it. Benjamin Tillman was fortunate in the 
possession of the capacities and conditions needful to the 
largesl human success. Gifted with splendid powers, he, in 
youth, conceived that ideal upon which his character was 
formed and his energies directed. He lives in that crucial 
period of our history when great occasions and inspiring op- 
portunities are constantly supplied. 

He saw before others, and further, that the foundation 
was being removed from beneath the agricultural and in- 
dustrial classes, and that they had not only to stand alone 
bearing upon their shoulders the legitimate superstructure 
of maintaining the professional and non-producing classes 
in their necessary and honorable calling of producing bread 
for the eater and raw materials to clothe the naked, but that 
a horde of gamblers and speculators under the forms of 
legalized monstrosities, had fastened themselves upon them 
and had placed burdens upon them too grievous to be tole- 
rated. Instead of owners they were becoming tenants. It 
was he who first uprose and protested against a financial 
system that was fast destroying the resources of the farm, 
and sweeping all the profits of the laborer into the coffers of 
the legalized robbers. The result of investigation and study 
showed him that unless a different and better system of 
finance was adopted by the government, ruin and disaster 



MANHOOD. 19 



would blight the peace, and prosperity and happiness of the 
people. To avert this calamity he has bent all the energies 
of his mind. Since his awakening to this condition of 
affairs there has been no neutral tint in his decisive charac- 
ter. He has ever since been aggressive, and has proved a 
force in whatever he has undertaken. He has been no lag- 
gard in any relation of life. In his one life purpose there 
seems to be no limit to his capacity or endurance. After 
careful study he made no mistake, but began upon the right 
lines in the very beginning, and that was the education, the 
enlightening of the producing class. Ever since he has be- 
gun he has managed every undertaking with great sagacity, 
energy and success. 

He began the agitation for a farmers' college in 1885 
through the pen and on the stump. Intense, progressive, he 
rarely hesitated to express his opinion of men and things. 
He knew the ignorance of the masses was very great, but re- 
cognized no obstacle as insurmountable. "To know and to 
do," seems to have been his motto. He began his work for 
the State of South Carolina by imparting knowledge. Great 
hopes are far removed from the dwellings of ignorance. At 
the beginning of his agitation for a farmers' college he was 
entreated by his fellow citizens to run for office. But 
nothing could persuade him to enter the race for political 
honors, he still steadily refused the proffers of his country- 
men. An omnivorous appetite for reading had given him a 
good acquaintance with the best English authors, and there 
was an incisiveness about his expressions that soon brought 
around him many followers. He was an attractive speaker 
to almost any audience. Men listened to him when he 
spoke. He was always earnest, sincere, bright and original. 
He hated sham, and was always ready to attack it wherever 
he found' it. He was an iconoclast. He had little reverence 
for tradition. It was well for the agricultural and indus- 
trial classes that with him no evil acquired immunity from 
attack by lapse of time, nor did age constitute a safe armor 
against his lance. All his articles for the press were written 



20 MANHOOD. 



with a force of conviction that gave point to his style and 
weight to his arguments. His speeches upon the stump at 
once showed a magnificent panoply for public address. His 
logic was instinct and powerful and moved in ever-augment- 
ing procession. The figures of speech he used were emphasis, 
and his illustrations arguments. He compelled attention, 
challenged investigation, and whether right or wrong in his 
premises and conclusions, made those who heard or read 
him think. Nothing escaped him. He was pitiless in ex- 
posing hypocrisy and denouncing what he deemed extrava- 
gant. Always he has been direct-minded and single-hearted. 
He has never had any concealments and reserve of confi- 
dence from those who were brought into relations of 
intimacy with him. His mind naturally found its way to 
the elementary conditions of truth and there were no devious 
methods of thought or action by which the truth thus found 
was ever obscured or perverted. Starting thus on the 
fundamental basis of principle, his logic was necessarily 
severe and irresistible. He never stated a proposition which 
he did not justify by adequate tacts and argument. 

The great purpose of bringing relief to an oppressed and 
struggling class, what hopes and fears must have possessed 
his mind! How stout his heart in list have been at this the 
beginning of his praiseworthy and admirable career! Be- 
fore him stretched all the long years of life, years of 
thought, of work, of attainment, or years of blighted hope, 
of struggle and failure and useless, dreadful despair. How 
kind that the future is held from view! For him it 
may have held so much ! In setting before himself such a 
purpose, how different must have been the state of his mind 
from those who grow up without any definite tastes or plans, 
and who develop no predilections! Some, ah, many there 
are who are mentally indolent and prefer that the decisions 
should be made for them. Of such one may possibly say 
without injustice that they are not of the material which 
will be likely to make at maturity a power either in one 
direction or another. 



MANHOOD. 21 



In 1882 Captain Tillman was a delegate to the State Demo- 
cratic Convention which convened in the legislative halls of 
the State Capitol. In this convention he gave his hearty- 
support to General Bratton for Governor. At this time 
there was again a very strong pressure brought to bear upon 
him begging him to stand for election to the Legislature. 
Friends went to him personally and tried to persuade him 
to enter the race ; articles of appeal through the press of his 
county tried to get him to become a candidate. The people 
wanted him there, they knew he would prove a great power 
for their cause, but still Captain Tillman refused, although 
his election was assured if he had only announced himself. 
Such already was the confidence he had inspired in the people 
of his State. The inherent qualities of heart which he pos- 
sessed ; his uncompromising devotion to what he conceived 
to be his duty had been recognized, and the people were 
ready to do homage. 

In August, 1885, the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
Society and the State Grange held a meeting at Bennetts- 
ville, Marlboro' County, South Carolina. Captain Tillman 
was a delegate to this Convention and delivered an address 
analyzing the cause of . the agricultural depression of the 
State, and the remedy for it. In this address, which made a 
very deep and lasting impression upon his audience, he dwelt 
upon the need for better facilities for the education of farm- 
ers at the University of the State, the reorganization of the 
Agricultural Department . the establishment of experimental 
farms, and the holding by farmers of institutes of their own. 
This convention was attended by the best representatives of 
the farming interests in the State, and his address was re- 
ceived with applause and endorsed in an enthusiastic manner. 

This Convention was in session for four days. Here the 
Reform baby of South Carolina was born, and Captain Till- 
man was its godfather. Having been so successfnl in rearing 
the child the Governor, nearly ten years afterwards in the 
same place, during the canvass for United States Senate, 
devised a plan which he hopes will bring national reform. 



22 MANHOOD. 



This new baby may take several years to grow to 
anything approaching the size of its South Carolina 
brother, but when it once begins to thrive it promises 
to become a Goliath in proportions. His second plan 
which he proposed is a simple one. It is in the nature 
of a war cry to the oppressed people of the South and West. 
It is simply a plan for them to put aside everything they are 
now fighting for except financial reform and bend their 
united energies to the task of changing the present mone- 
tary system. When they have accomplished this they can 
then return to other issues and carry them to success singly 
or any other way they choose. 

Benjamin R. Tillman's first speech at Bennettsville in favor 
of immediate steps to be taken for the enlightenment of the 
farmer was what brought him forward more prominently 
than anything else as a Reformer. The agital ion for Industrial 
and Scientific training for poor boys soon broadened into a 
demand for reform in politics. At this time politics were in 
a state of stagnation because of the convention system of 
nominating in the Democratic party, and the existence as he 
charged of an oligarchy of office-holders, consisting of the 
members of the old aristocratic families of the State. It 
was the ring that oppressed the farmer; it was the ring that 
cared nothing for the interest of the agricultural and indus- 
trial classes, and tlm ring it was that instituted and placed 
upon the statute book only such Lavs as to them were popu- 
lar and profitable. To abolish this hereditary office-holding 
was the first and most important step that was to be taken. 
Captain Tillman saw this. He was a farmer^ and it was his 
own class, and all classes that lived by the "sweat of their 
brow," that he had begun to fight for, and it was these 
classes with whom he was in sympathy heart and soul . Here 
was the first great obstacle that presented itself. As long as 
there was a combination like this in power, certainly nothing 
could be done. He realized that time was needed. It was 
an educational process. There must be organization, unity 
of purpose and endeavor. 



MANHOOD. 23 



In 1886 and 1887 he saw that the ring was too well en- 
trenched to be overthrown. The farmers and working classes 
had not been sufficiently aroused and organized. He con- 
tinued with patient endeavor to contribute articles to the 
leading agricultural papers, and to advocate his plans on the 
platform when occasion afforded. He was endowed by na- 
ture with fine intellectual powers, which were developed and 
strengthened by a culture and a discipline that enabled him 
to comprehend more readily and accurately the various ques- 
tions which demanded his attention both in public and 
private life. His conclusions upon any subject were not 
mere impressions derived from intuitive perception, but were 
the result of careful investigation and reason. He always 
studied the premises of every situation very closely, being 
cautious in the expression of opinions until they had been 
clearly and definitely formulated in his own mind by delibe- 
rate thought and reflection. This part gives great weight to 
his opinions upon all questions which he discusses, and in- 
spires a reliance upon his judgment on the part of others 
which is seldom seen, and which is as seldom found to be 
misplaced. After Governor Tillman once comes to the con- 
clusion in his own mind that he is right, nothing can move 
him from his course. He is always persistent in what he 
thinks to be right . It is true the advice of friends is not 
always disregarded, but he adheres to what he believes his 
duty with a tenacity that is worthy of imitation. People 
all over the United States recognize this worthy character- 
istic of the Governor's make-up. We clip an article from 
Frank Leslie's Weekly which appeared just after the recent 
Darlington riot. It certainly shows Tillman's fidelity to 
duty: 

"Governor Tillman of South Carolina is by no means an 
ideal personage, but he has displayed some qualities as an 
Executive which must commend him to the approval of law- 
abiding citizens. His course in reference to the enforcement 
of the Dispensary law has certainly shown that he is abso- 



24 MANHOOD. 



lutely fearless in the performance of what he conceives to 
be his duty. This law has been stubbornly resisted in 
Charleston, where something in the nature of a conspiracy 
against it and the officers with its execution has been organ- 
ized by the liquor interest. It is said that spies and spotters 
dog the footsteps of the constables and harass them with 
threats of personal violence ; that this defiance of the law 
is encouraged in more influential quarters; and this is the 
state of affairs which provokes Governor Tillman to aggres- 
sive action. He meets the bulldozing of the liquor sellers 
with this declaration: "This law will have to be obeyed. I 
will stop illict whiskey selling in Charleston if it takes all 
the military and constables in the State to do it, and even if 
we have to kill a few of these Italian bulldozers.' There 
is no mistaking the meaning of this declaration. The Gov- 
ernor is not wise perhaps in his talk about killing, but he is 
right in bis r determination to maintain and enforce the law, 
if he should actually employ the military, as he says he will 
if necessary to do so, and if those who defy him should be- 
come victims of his displeasure and their own folly, right 
minded people would overlook his intemperance of speech in 
their approval of his fidelity to official duty." 

By 1890 the Industrial and Agricultural classes had moved 
forward a Btep. Among themselves they had talked and 
debated upon National questions. The Alliance [had been 
formed and within its organization the eductional training 
had begun. The Reform movement, if it had done nothing 
else, had brought the farmers and workingmen to think and 
act for themselves. Investigation and consultation had 
shown that unless a different and better system of finance 
was adopted by the government, ruin and disaster would 
follow . 



CHAPTER III. 

GOVERNOR— CAMPAIGN OF 1890-92. 

The campaign of 1890 will ever be memorable in the his- 
tory of South Carolina. It witnessd the first decisive steps 
the farmers had taken to remove the oppression that had been 
put upon them by the monied class. They had come to a full 
appreciation of the issues which were to be met, and the time 
seemed ripe for a man representing their own interests to be 
put into the field. The study of economical questions and 
political science, however small, had at least taught them 
that they could do nothing without a hand in the govern- 
ment. They must be represented by some honest, fearless 
man, who would at all times, with an ever-vigilant eye, sub- 
serve their interest, and take advantage of every honest op- 
portunity to bring them from under the oppression they were 
bearing. 

In 1876 the "horny-handed sons of toil " had left their 
plows, and under the lead of gallant and patriotic men had 
overthrown the government of the carpet-bagger and the 
negro. But after the Hampton campaign had subsided and 
the farmers had returned to their homes and their fields, 
need of another reform eventually became evident. The 
conduct of those whom they had placed in power had not 
been what it should have been, and this call for reform in 
1890 brought them, with all the power and influence they 
could wield, to help break up the " ring " and place in power 
leaders of their own choice — men who would not flinch to do 
their every duty. 

Early in the year, South Carolina became instinct with 
the coming change. Laborers were in the pinch of discom- 
fort from conditions constantly growing harder and harsher, 
and, summing up the situation, had declared that the thing 
called politics had to do with the case. They were a long 
time in locating the difficulty, but three years of patient 



26 GOVERNOR. 



inquiry, with Capt. Tillman as prime mover in the cause, 
turned on much light, and there came to be abroad in the 
land a settled conviction and deep purpose that more of jus- 
tice and equity should obtain. 

They had not long to look for a Governor. The Executive 
Committee of the Farmers' Association held a meeeing in 
Columbia in November, 1889. This committee was com- 
posed of one from each County, and under the Constitution 
had charge of everything connected with the Association, and 
was authorized to take any steps likely to aid the purposes 
for which the organization was formed. When this commit- 
tee met in November, representative of sixteen Counties, after 
full discussion of the situation and a careful consideration of 
what should be done, it ordered Capt. G. W. Shell to issue an 
address and call a Convention. This is now known in the 
political history of South Carolina as "The Shell Conven- 
tion." This call, issued by Capt. Shell (every word of which 
was composed and written by Captain Tillman himself) is 
known as the "Shell Manifesto." The Convention which it 
called together met March 27, 1890, in Columbia. In this 
Convention Mr. J. L. M. Irby, of Laurens, in an eloquent 
and impassioned address, placed in nomination Capt. Benja- 
min R. Tillman, of Edgefield. The nomination was sec- 
onded, amid deafening applause, by Mr. Padgett, of Edge- 
field. Capt. Tillman was then nominated by acclamation. 

He who had so many times before refused to run for office 
now saw it was his imperative duty to obey the call . The 
time was ripe for action. Heretofore he had seen that he 
could do. more good in going among the farmers, in speak- 
ing to them upon the hustings and through the press, than in 
going to the Legislature, as they desired. But now they 
wanted him to fill an office, for which he believed it his duty 
to canvass the State. After many years spent in trying to 
educate the masses, amid an unfair and non-representative 
government, he believed that the time had at last arrived. 
But it meant bold, direct, unflinching action, and this was 
the kind of action that Benjamin Tillman gloried in. He 



GOVERNOR. 27 



stopped not to regard consequences if his fellow-farmer was 
helped to bear better his burden. 

It may be asked what was the power in and with this man 
— what was and is the secret of his success in life. For he 
is essentially a successful man, if position, respect, honor, 
manhood, and troops of friends can be said to make a man 
a successful one. It was this: Let it now be the open secret 
of Governor Tillman's whole life and successful career ; let 
it be known and accepted by all, especially by the young and 
rising generation of men who would aspire to follow in his 
footsteps, to find a like success: know all men, then, that it 
was the willingness and the ability to avow always and fol- 
low his own convictions on any subject or duty. It was 
manhood recognized and applied to life, with common sense, 
an honest heart, and a tireless energy. 

He toiled while others slept, he worked while others idled, 
and thus outstripped more brilliant competitors. He never 
believed in luck or duplicity to attain an end, but always 
relied upon labor, truth, and manly methods in whatever he 
undertook. 

We should have mentioned before this that the Farmer's 
Alliance had already taken deep hold of the people, and the 
office-holding class and the corporation-serving press which 
had heretofore addressed the farmers as the "solid yeo- 
manry," "bone and sinew" of the country, soon changed 
their tune. The Reformers were now referred to as "old hay- 
seed Socialists," and accused of seeking class legislation. 
Whereas the farmers had admired and obeyed others, they 
now begun to think and act for themselves — in the estima- 
tion of the "ring" a great crime. 

When they prepared to attempt the embodiment of their 
plans, they had not been so sanguine as to expect to accom- 
plish everything at once ; but they had expected, after the 
importance the Farmers' Movement had assumed all over the 
State, and after the fair promises had been made them by 
those seeking office at their hands, that the Legislature 
would have done something ; that some promising action at 



28 GOVERNOR. 



least would have been undertaken in their interest. But 
even in this modest expectation they had been entirely dis- 
appointed. What little was pretended to be done in their 
interest resulted in injury rather than good. In 1886 they 
had entrusted the Agricultural Board with procuring in- 
formation about Agricultural Colleges and reporting to the 
Legislature, which was about equivalent to securing in ad- 
vance an adverse report. Certainly three, and very likely 
all five of the board, were adverse to a College separate from 
the State University. Of course, a report was submitted in 
favor of continuing the agricultural annex, which the farm- 
ers rightly regarded as of little or no use to them or any- 
body else. What was wanted was an Agricultural College 
with an experimental farm separate and apart from the State 
University. 

In the next place, the establishment of an experimental 
stal ion prior to the College was putting the cart before the 
horse. Such a station in connection with the College, and 
under the direction of the professors, would have been all 
right and proper, and would have created but little addi- 
tional expense. Some were led. or rather misled, into sup- 
porting the cxpcrimi'iital station plan, with the idea that it 
would eventually be expanded into a college. But to show more 
plainly the "true inwardness" of this movement, the Senate 
in its devotion to the farmer must needs divide this station 
in two, one for the up-country and one for the low-country. 
Now. if either had thought of expanding into a college the 
other would have opposed it, and between the two the oppo- 
nents of the college would have stepped in and prevented 
either. 

This was the kind of Legislature purporting to be in the 
interest of the farmer. 

The farmers did not ask of the Legislature any extreme or 
unreasonable measures, or anything that would add mate- 
rially to the burden of our already over-taxed people. They 
only asked for a reorganization and enlargement of the 
Agricultural Board, such as would give it the confidence of 



GOVERNOR 29 



the people, and place it in more direct connection with the 
farmers' necessities. Next, they asked that steps be taken 
looking to the establishment of an Agricultural College. Was 
there anything unreasonable in these demands? The State 
was spending over $40,000 per annum for the higher educa- 
tion of lawyers and doctors and preachers at the State Uni- 
versity, and for military training at the Citadel Academy. 

These were some of the things for which Captain Tillman 
had been fighting. The agitation for industrial and scien- 
tific training for poor boys broadened into a demand for 
reform in politics, and he was the man, the only man, in 
South Carolina who could successfully lead the movement 
forward. 

It was with a sense of ridicule for reform principles that 
those who were in power came to the fight, but one or two of 
Captain Tillman's speeches opened eyes that before were 
blinded by conceit, and soon from mountain to sea the op- 
ponents of the Reformers recognized that it was a man of 
brains with whom they had to do battle. 

General Joseph H. Earle, conceded to be one of the finest 
lawyers at the South Carolina bar, was the opposing candidate 
for the gubernatorial cnair, as was also General John Bratton. 
Endowed with talents, renowned as a speaker, was General 
Earle, and the possessor of a high and finished education. 
It was thought before the canvass opened that Captain Till- 
man would hardly be in the race. 

But the Reform candidate thought differently. He possessed 
a rare degree of faith in himself, because he knew he was right. 
It was not long before the " ring " (as Captain Tillman had 
name- them) saw that their defeat was inevitable. They 
awoke to the fact that General Earle was no match for his 
opponent as a stump-speaker. Slowly this dawned upon 
them as one by one every County seat in the State was can- 
vassed, and the issues of the day were put before the people. 
This itself was Captain Tillman's doing. Not one-tenth — 
hardly one out of a hundred — had before this seen the man 
for whom they voted for Governor. Captain Tillman inau- 



30 GOVERNOR 



gurated a system by which every man, every woman and 
child in South Carolina had opportunity to see the candi- 
dates who asked for office, and decide the merits and argu- 
ments of these men for themselves. 

The result of this canvass was an overwhelming victory for 
Captain Tillman . He was elected to the executive office by 
a vote in convention of 270 out 320. 

During the campaign General Wade Hampton visited 
South Carolina to lend his influence against Captain Till- 
man, but it did no good. He came all the way from Canada 
to attend the meeting in Columbia on June 24, 1890, travel- 
ling nearly four days. He also spoke at Aiken and other 
places during the campaign, but he, together with Bratton, 
Earle and Haskell, was no match for the people's champion 
in the discussion of either measures or men. 

An independent ticket was run against him at the polls 
with Haskell at its head, but it resulted in nothing. 

In 1892 the Conservatives were determined to overthrow 
the Tillman " ring." Two good lawyers, Sheppard and Orr, 
opposed him. At every campaign meeting in the State dur- 
ing the canvass crowds flocked to hear them. An unusual 
amount of interest was manifested. Governor Tillman still 
carried on the campaign upon Reform and Educational lines, 
while the opposite party rather dealt in personalities and 
abuse in lieu of argument. The result was, as every one of 
judgment predicted, a crushing defeat for the Conservatives. 

And thus for a second term was Governor Tillman, the 
pride of the people, seated in the gubernatoriul chair, than 
whom none of Carolina's sons were more worthy of the 
honor. 



CHAPTER IV. 
CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR, 1894. 

Not so very many days ago a gentleman in conversation 
with Governor Tillman asked him : 

"Can you explain to me this awful bitterness of political 
feeling in South Carolina?" The Governor sat down and 
told his story. 

"I began in 1885 to see that the agricultural classes were, 
through interest charges, and through the credit system, fast 
sinking into a condition of servitude. The farmers were be- 
coming tenants instead of owners. Then the Alliance came 
along, and some good things were done for the farmers. 
Farmers combined and borrowed money at low rates and 
paid cash. 

"Then began the division between the country and the 
town people of South Carolina. The town people did not get 
such good prices as they had obtained by the credit system. 
They no longer had the goose to pluck. I had gone into poli- 
tics, not for the sake of politics, but to use politics as a means 
to bring about this reform on behalf of the farmer, and an- 
other great reform — that of the educational system. When 
the town people looked about to find some one to blame for 
the reduction of their profits, they saw Ben Tillman's head 
sticking up and they struck at it. That's how the towns- 
people got to opposing me. 

"Well, I had another great reform in mind — a reform of 
the educational system. I thought I saw that the South 
could never compete with the North until her boys and girls 
were given a more practical and technical education. I 
thought the State should supply a bread-and-meat educa- 
tion — yes, a bread-and-meat education, and a bread-and- 
meat culture, if you will — and leave the gimcracks of educa- 
tion to those who had money enough to spend to get them. 
The result of that was a College opened last July, in which 
for $100 a year each, six hundred boys are learning the ap- 
plied sciences and good English. 



32 CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 

"And now, don't you see, this antagonized the old 
aristocracy, and they joined the townspeople against me. 
Farmers move slowly, and it has taken a long while to get 
them together, but the reforms are coming. I regret to say, 
though, that never among any people was the line of politi- 
cal difference drawn so strongly as the lines which mark 
the corporation limits of the towns and cities in South Caro- 
lina at this time." 

No one has looked into and judged affairs with a keener 
and more practiced eye than Benjamin R. Tillman. The 
farmers and working classes of South Carolina have put 
their faith in him, and he has shown, by his persistency, his 
insight and courage, that they could have placed confidence 
in none better. We remember a speech made by the Gover- 
nor in the recent campaign for Senator, in which he pictured 
the poverty-stricken condition of the farmers and said they 
were euchered out of their earnings by the scheming scoun- 
drels in Washington. In this same speech we remember he 
touched upon the money question. He told how England, 
the creditor of the world, had stricken down silver in order 
to advance the value of the interest received from other 
nations. Every man having an income from bonds and 
stocks was opposed to silver. These fellows had manipulated 
Congress in regard to the issue of paper money, and now 
controlled the outlet of money, prices and products. Silver 
had shrunk in value, and with it the prices of products had 
shrunk. This country ought not to be paying interest. It 
ought to be issuing its own money. The only reason that 
this could not be done was because one-half of the country 
was bamboozled by the newspapers and manipulators to vote, 
the other half down, and the money power is always on top, 
and the thieves in both parties joined hand to keep the peo- 
ple poor and make themselves rich. 

The Governor is a farmer, but none the less a student of 
political economy. He has always the nerve to do what is 
right, and in 1890 to 1894 has given South Carolina the best 
government it has ever known. His speeches are fearless 



CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 33 



denunciations of what lie believes wrong, and are models of 
directness and terseness. None have been found to approach 
him when brought upon the hustings. In no instance have 
his opponents ever been known to triumph over him in airy- 
debate upon any single point. 

"I am God Almighty's gentleman," exclaimed the Gover- 
nor at one of the campaign meetings in 1892. 
" It's a mighty poor job," put in Col. Sheppard. 
" I am not one who criticises God's work," answered the 
Governor amid deafening applause. 

"I am not running the Dispensary," interrupted General 
Butler at the meeting in Chester. 

"Then leave it alone," answered the Governor. 
Such were always the ready answers his opponents met. 
No political enemy has ever desired to come before him the 
second time. 

Some of the papers in South Carolina became very indig- 
nant that the Governor of the State should use such words 
as "God Almighty's gentleman." They probably did not 
know that it is a quotation from the poet Dryden. 

The principal points brought out in the canvass with Sena- 
tor Butler were about the same as those in 1892. They can 
be gathered from the following account of the campaign 
meeting in Anderson, August the 7th, 1894, as described by 
the News and Courier of that date : 

"General Butler waited for absolute quiet before he began 
to speak. He said that it was on the very spot where he was 
speaking that he made a speech for white supremacy in 1876. 
He had no idea of being rewarded with the Senatorship 
when he thousands of times risked his life to rid the State 
of its incubus. He would have preferred death on the bat- 
tlefield rather than have taken the abuse heaped on him and 
his family before he got his seat. He has borne the burdens 
of the office with but one sentiment, and that was his duty 
to the State, free from the influences of bribery and cajolery. 
He did not intend to identify himself with any faction in 
the State, and his fight was to have others stop fighting. He 



34 CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 

clearly and graphically described to the crowd why the South 
has been unable to secure the relief it wanted because it has 
not votes enough . He denounced as a slander any charge of 
corruption against such honorable Senators as Gordon and 
Walsh, Jones and Berry, Morgan and Pugh, Coke and Mills, 
Call and Pasco, Ransom and Jarvis, Daniel and Hun ton, 
Vest and Cockrell, most of whom were honorable Confede- 
rates, who conld not be bought with all the money in the 
land. Ib> defended the Senate tariff hill and paid consider- 
able attention to financial issues. He was given a most 
careful hearing, except for the Last few minutes. The entire 
crowd seemed enraptured with his speech, which was loudly 
applauded . 

"Governor Tillman was cheered to the echo when he arose 
and the crowd bunched up to the stand. He had lots of 
whooping and assurances that he was going to the Senate. 
He took up the defensive for the "Reform" primary and 
convention. If the committee should prove so treacherous 
as to call off that Convention and let all of the candidates 
go in the general primary you all had better watch and pray 
that your "Reform" measures don't topple out and be lost, 
he cried. The Dispensary he called a compromise between 
fanaticism and intemperance. He held that in reopening 
the Dispensaries he simply did what he regarded his duty to 
the people He went over his course in hiding out with the 
law and how with the new Judge he could hope to save the 
law. He holds that there will be $300,000 or $400,000 an- 
nual profit in the law. For some reason the Governor spent 
most of his time defending the Dispensaries, search war- 
rants, prices and other features. He promised that the 
liquor would be gotten down to 80 per cent, proof and sold 
at $2, if that was wanted. 

"Make it $1.50," cried Josh. 

"No, sir, you shan't have it," said Governor Tillman. 

He closed up with Third Partyism and National politics, 
and said he never charged the men who voted for free silver 
as being bought. He wanted to know what about Carlisle. 



CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 35 



The tariff bill now up was a humbug and a cheat he thought. 
He charged that it took a Democratic President to buy Con- 
gressmen to betray the South and the West. He wanted to 
know where the sub-treasury ever won a fight. The only 
place the Alliance has won the fight was in South Carolina, 
because he had kept the Alliance out of the Third Party. 
The politicians, he charged, were in league to defeat him. 
Now the effort was to send men to Columbia pledged to sup- 
port some one standing on the Ocala platform on all fours, 
and they would probably combine with the Butler men and 
defeat him. South Carolina need not go into the next Demo- 
cratic Convention or into the Populist organization if it pre- 
ferred not. The best way to stay inside was to vote for Gov- 
ernor next Saturday, and when the candidates for the Legis- 
lature come around ask them who they will vote for. He 
charged that there was a bribery fund of half a million to 
defeat him. He warned the boys to keep their eyes open. 
He thought that he would get all the satisfaction he wanted 
and let his speech go out in a blaze of glory by having a 
hand primary, so he called upon all those who were willing 
to follow him into a new party and who wanted him for 
United States Senator to raise up their hands. Up shot the 
hands of the crowd accompanied with a series of hurrahs. 

The following letter, written by Governor Tillman to the 
Hon. Thos. P. Mitchell, Chairman Executive Committee, on 
May the 15th, will best define the Governor's position as can- 
didate for United Senator : 

Columbia, S. C, May 15, 1894. 
Hon. Thos. P. Mitchell, Woodward, S. C. : 

My Dear Sir: Your letter of yesterday received. As you 
ask for a prompt reply, I answer at once. Having been the 
recognized leader of the Reform party or faction in the State 
since its organization in April, 1886, and having been very 
pronounced and outspoken in my speech at St. Louis last 
October, and more recently in my interview of April 9th ult,, 
I did not go into details in answering your letter of April 
18th, because I thought it entirely unnecessary. I had no 
thought of keeping any opinions or policy I hold on public 



36 CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 



questions hidden — as I am not a straddler or dodger in poli- 
tics or anything else. 

I will, therefore, answer as clearly as I know how, in order 
to satisfy all who may care to know how I stand. 

The financial policy advocated by the Alliance embraces 
three things : 

1. The abolition of national banks and the issue of paper 
money direct by the United States Government. 

2. The free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. 

8. The increase of the circulating mediums, gold, silver 
and legal tender greenbacks, to at least $50 per capita of 
population. 

These fundamental ideas or demands are accompanied by 
the scheme for a government system of banking, incorporat- 
ing the sub-treasury idea and the lending of money to the 
people at a low rate of interest. 

To the three propositions sel forlh above I can and do give 
my earnest support, and will strive, if elected Senator, to see 
them incorporated into law and become the fixed policy of 
our government. 

I also can advocate and fighl for all the other "demands," 
except that I doubt the wisdom or practicability of the gov- 
ernment owning and running all railroads, telegraph and 
telephone lines. 1 will take occasion during the campaign 
to discuss all these matters fully. The one essential point 
on which I differ with the Alliance is the lending of money 
to the people. I could easily dodge behind the "or some- 
thing better," if so minded, but my self-respect and my duty 
to the people who have shown such love and trust in my 
leadership will not allow me to quibble or shirk, whatever 
consequences may follow this avowal. I would be unworthy 
of the honors they have conferred on me in the past and of 
all trust whatever if I did not come out boldly and tell them 
the truth. This is the more obligatory on me now because I 
am seeking to enter National politics. In 1892 I did not dis- 
cuss National questions or oppose the incorporation of the 
Ocala platform in the State Democratic platform in May, 
because I saw there was danger of our hot-headed Alliance- 
men splitting off into a third party — the fatal blunder which 
caused Mr. Cleveland's nomination and well-nigh destroyed 
the Alliance in all the other Southern States. Had our ex- 
ample in South Carolina been followed in the other South- 
ern States, Alliance ideas would be the predominant ones in 
all the South to-day, and our National administration would 
not be controlled by allied mug-wumps and Republicans and 



CAMPAIGN FOR SEXaTOR. 37 



traitors. I am differently situated now, being a candidate 
for the United States Senate, and honesty compels that 
every one who votes for me shall know how I stand. I 
am unalterably opposed to the National government lending 
anybody money. The Alliance is not consistent when it de- 
mands the abolition of National banks on the ground that 
the system is unjust and robs the people (in all of which 
I concur) for the benefit of a privileged few, and then turns 
around and asks that the government lend money to the 
farmer under a similar system on the same terms. It is a 
transfer of a special privilege, which should never have been 
granted to anybody, from the banks to the holders of cotton, 
wheat, etc., and cannot be defended, because two wrongs never 
make one right.-* But without going further into the argu- 
ment, which can be amply discussed this summer, I must 
remind you that in spite of all our efforts to restore silver to 
its place, the money power lias succeeded in its long cher- 
ished pnrpose of demonetizing it. This was accomplished 
through the unwise leadership of those Southern Alliance- 
men who left the Silver Democrats at the critical time to 
organize the Third Party and enabled Cleveland's henchmen 
to divide many Southern delegations and control others so 
that he got the nomination in spite of his record on silver. 
Now, as South Carolina set her sisters a wise example in 
1892, it is incumbent on her to repeat it in 1894. It is 
time to be formulating the platform and marshaling the 
people for 1896. Abating not one jot or tittle of the de- 
mands which can be defended and upon which we can go to 
the country in the hopes of carrying the next Presidential 
election, we must eliminate all radical and impracticable 
schemes and appeal to the good sense and enlightened self- 
interest of the great American people. Too many issues will 
only confuse and divide us and we cannot afford to palter 
about lending money on cotton and wheat when we have not 
been able to prevent the Lombard and Wall street combina- 
tion from accomplishing the enslavement of the masses by 
the demonetization of silver, and the banking system which 
enables those thieves to control the circulating medium at 
will. Let us give battle to the enemies of liberty and pros- 
perity among the masses under the flag of "free silver, more 
greenbacks and gold— all legal tender and all receivable for 
any and all dues, private and public," and we have some 
chance of winning. Leave methods of distribution and the 
system of banking alone to be settled after we win the fight 
on those issues. 



38 CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR. 



Now, as to voting against caucus control, I can readily and 
willingly promise to sustain this policy and vote on the lines I 
have indicated without regard to any caucus. The Northeast- 
ern Democrats have set us an example on that line, which 
will he sufficient excuse for all time. The Senate Democratic 
caucus has made concessions to local interests which have 
destroyed what little there was of "tariff reform" in the 
Wilson bill. The goldbug Democrats of the House refused 
to caucus on the repeal of the Sherman law last Summer; 
Eastern Democrats and Republicans alike ignore party lines 
and caucuses when their interest is at stake. Il is time we 
of the South and West should do likewise. The caucus was 
a good thing as long as it served to rob those sections; it be. 
comes obsolete when justice is sought to he obtained through 
its agency. My dear sir. in conclusion. 1 hope I have made 
my posit ion clear enough at last. If it shall unite and ce- 
ment the Alliance in my support 1 shall be glad, but if not, 
I shall not complain and will cheerfully Leave the matter of 
my election in the hands of my fellow citizens. If honored 
by their suffrages I will in the future, as in the past, stand 
by their rights and interests with all the power of mind and 
heart which I may possess, If they choose to retire me to 
private life, I will as cheerfully abide 1 heir will. 

Respectfully, B. R. TILLMAN. 

During the campaign for Senator the opponents of Till- 
man hardly dared to discuss the issues on their merits; they 
tried to obscure them by personalities. They dared not 
admit that Tillman led the people to secure their rights, and 
for the first time since the war made public discussion pos- 
sible. He built up patriotism and love of country in all 
hearts . 

When the history of South Carolina is written, after the 
storms of passion and prejudices have passed away, Gov- 
ernor Benjamin Ryan Tillman will go down as one of South 
Carolina's greatest characters. 



CHAPTER V. 
EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

The following is the beginning of the speech delivered by 
the Governor at Bennettsville, on August 6, 1885. It has 
been said that it was at this place and at this time that the 
baby of Reform was born. It was the custom of the Gov- 
ernor, when he first delivered orations, to read them, so on 
this occasion he begins : 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen : I know that whenever a 
man draws as large a pile of manuscript as this on an audi- 
ence he strikes terror to the soul of everybody in it ; but 
while I shall be compelled by circumstances to occupy more 
of your time than I could wish, I promise you one thing: 
I shall interest you. A comparison of my own with the 
faces of other delegates here shows me that I am one of the 
youngest of your number. I therefore beg that you will not 
attribute anything I may say or do to want of modesty, but 
give me credit for fulfilling what I conceive to be my duty, 
a duty I owe to those who sent me here, and to the farmers 
throughout the State. 

"I am aware that any man who attempts to attract the 
attention of as large an audience as this to anything he may 
read, has a hard job before him, no matter how interest- 
ing or important his subject. But, like most farmers, I 
have been more accustomed to execute my thoughts than to 
speak them. Then, too, I have noticed that however fluent 
a talker a farmer may be while sitting down, as soon as you 
put him on his feet and give him the floor, he gets lost and 
confused, and stops outright; or else he leaves unsaid half 
he intended to say. In the few attempts of such a nature 
which I have made, I have found that my ideas outrun my 
words, and when I got the words the ideas were gone. Like 
a pair of unbroken colts, they never would work kindly to- 
gether, and there was either a balk or a runaway scrape, in 



40 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

which I said something that I did not intend. 'Speaking 
makes a ready man. writing an exact man." I will there- 
fore ask your permission to read what I have to say, while I 
attempt to direct the attention of this large and representa- 
tive body of some of the best and most progressive farmers 
in the State to several of the most important questions." 

The remaining portion of the speech was a survey of the 
farmer's surroundings and future prospects, with suggestions 
as to his relief. 

The following contains the three first paragraphs of the 
Governor's Inaugural Address, delivered at Columbia. S. C, 
December 4, 1S90 : 

••' tentlemen of the General Assembly : It is seldom in the 
history of politics that a man is so honored as I am. It is 
customary to perform the ceremony of inauguration in pub- 
lic, but only once before, that I am aware, has it been neces- 
sary in South Carolina to hold it in the open air in order to 
let the people see. To the large number of my fellow-citi- 
zens who have done me the honor to come as witnesses of 
this impressive ceremonial, I can only say. in simple words, 
I thank you. To the people I owe my election, after a most 
memorable canvass. To the people I owe allegiance, and to 
the people I pledge loyal service. This is no mere holiday 
occasion. The citizens of this great Commonwealth have, 
for the first time in its history, demanded and obtained for 
then - 3 the right to choose their Governor, and I, as the 
exponent and leader of the revolution which brought about 
the change, am here to take the solemn oath of office, and 
enter upon the discharge of its onerous duties. Before doing 
this it is proper, and usage makes it obligatory upon me, to 
make known my views and opinions on the important ques- 
tion- agitating the public mind, and to .-how where and how 
reforms are needed and can be wrought. 

"With such an audience as this, sympathetic and enthu- 
- atic, I might, if I were an orator, attempt to play upon 
your feelings, and win applause by flights of what some call 
eloquence; but which sensible people consider as "glittering 



EXTKACTS FROM SPEECHES. 41 



generalities"— the tinsel and brass buttons of a dress parade 
meaning nothing and worth nothing. The responsibilities 
of my position, the reliance of the people upon my leader- 
ship, the shortness of our legislative session (one-fourth of 
which is already gone), alike demand the display of practi- 
cal statesmanship and business methods. We are met to do 
the business of the people— not to evolve beautiful theories, 
or discuss ideal government. We come as Reformers, claim- 
ing that many things in the government are wrong, and that 
there is room for retrenchment and reduction of taxes. Our 
task is to give the people better government, and more effi- 
cient government, as cheaply as possible. We must, how- 
ever, never lose sight of the fact that niggardness is not 
always economy. The people will pay even more taxes than 
at present if they know those taxes are wisely expended, and 
for their benefit. 

"Before I proceed to discuss, in plain, straightforward 
fashion, the legislation I shall ask you to consider, I desire 
to congratulate you upon the signal victory achieved by the 
people at the recent election. Democracy, the rule of the 
people, has won a victory unparalled in its magnitude and 
importance, and those whose hearts were troubled as they 
watched the trend of national legislation in its unblushing 
usurpation of authority, its centralizing grasp upon the 
throats of the State, its abject surrender to the power of 
corporate money and class interests — all such must lift up 
joyful hearts of praise to the all-Ruler, and feel their 
faith in the stability of our republican institutions strength- 
ened. In our own State the triumph of Democracy and 
white supremacy over mongrelism and anarchy, of civiliza- 
tion over barbarism, has been most complete. And it is 
gratifying to note the fact, that this was attended by a po- 
litical phenomenon which was a surprise to all of us. Our col- 
ored fellow-citizens absolutely refused to be led to the polls 
by their bosses. The opportunity of having their votes freely 
cast and honestly counted, which has been claimed is de- 
nied the negroes, caused scarcely a ripple of excitement 



42 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 



among them. They quietly pursued their avocations, and 
left the conduct of the election to the whites. Many who 
voted cast their ballots for the regular Democratic ticket, and 
the consequence is, that to-day there is less race prejudice 
and race feeling between the white men and black men of 
South Carolina than has existed at any time since 1868." 

The last sentence in his inaugural was : 

"Pledging you my best efforts and hearty co-operation in 
your arduous labors, and invoking the guidance and blessing 
of the Father upon our labors in behalf of our beloved 
State and its people, I am now ready to call Heaven to wit- 
ness and enter upon the duties of my office." 

The following is a report of the Governor's speech before 
the International Temperance Congress in Prohibition Park, 
Staten Island, June the 4th. 1894. The report is in many 
respects untrue, for we speak from authority when we say 
that the audience was very much impressed and in sympa- 
thy with the speaker : 

"I have come a long way and left my official duties for 
the truth and the right. I have heard a great deal at the 
sessions I have attended of 'sand' and 'backbone.' It has 
been said that I possess these qualities. I will say that I 
will show here to-night that I am willing to advance my 
convictions on my audience, and I am going to controvert 
your deait 'st ideas and firmest beliefs. I am probably the 
only politician present. I have been elected Governor of a 
State, and I am a candidate for the United States Senate, 
and expect to be elected." 

The Governor then went on to say that he was not exactly 
a politician in the ordinary acceptance of the term. He 
said that he always spoke his convictions, and that was not 
characteristic of x politicians. He said that he was a farmer, 
that his gubernatorial position was his first office. He an- 
nounced that he proposed to have his say, and if any one in 
the audience wanted to throw rocks at him he would throw 
rocks back. Then, drawing himself to the full height, he 
said, in tones that made the rafters ring: 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 43 



" I am here to-night to tell you that prohibition don't pro- 
hibit, and never will prohibit. We have got a plan in South 
Carolina that completely wipes out saloons, and we have 
done more than you have. Now, I am a temperance man. 
(Applause.) I never drank five gallons of whiskey, all told, 
in my life. (Applause.) I sometimes take a social glass 
with my friends, but I don't like the stuff." 

The Governor then produced a bottle of whiskey with the 
South Carolina label on it. He waved it like a fire brand in 
the faces of the total abstainers and described the State Dis- 
pensary plan. He said that prior to the decision of the Su- 
preme Court of the State there were sixty-six Dispensaries 
in operation in the State, and the State had paid out $379,- 
000 for liquor, $57,000 for bottles, and $37,000 for labels and 
other expenses. From the total outlay of $475,000, and with 
$98,000 worth of liquor on hand, $567,000 worth had been 
sold, and a net profit of $100,000 to the State and $84,000 to 
the Counties had been realized. He said that the quality of 
whiskey was chemically pure, so that the people quit having 
a debauch when they got drunk on it. _ A moment later he 
said people did not get drunk on Dispensary whiskey, they 
got drunk on blind-tiger whiskey, which he said they hid in 
holes in the ground or "toted" in their boot-legs. He stirred 
up the audience by declaring that prohibition would never 
be established by votes. " Give us a chance," said a man in 
the front. This brought a volley of applause. When the 
Governor shouted, "You are not ready to remove the gov- 
ernment tax on whiskey." 

"Yes we are," came from all parts of the hall. 
" Then you are blinder than I thought you were," said the 
Governor. 

A moment later he alluded to prohibition " narrow-mind- 
edness," and complained that the audience would only go 
half way with him. 

Then he said: " Before you are a dozen years older you 
will see half the States in the Union following the example 
of South Carolina." 

" Never," shouted a woman delegate. 



44 EXTKACTS FROM SPEECHES. 



" If you can't get prohibition will you take the Dispen- 
sary?" asked the Governor. 

There were a hundred noes, and one man in the back of 
the hall said yes. 

" That is encouraging," said the Governor. He said that 
in all the country of South Carolina, and nearly all the 
towns, public sentiment is in favor of the Dispensary law, 
and it will be carried out eventually. He went on: "So 
far as backbone is concerned, I have as much as any other 
man. hut when you tackle the liquor trade entrenched be- 
hind its hundreds of millions, you need to have the backbone 
of the Statue of Liberty." 

The following speech was delivered on Sunday morning, 
March 31, 1894, to the Governor's Guards. It was delivered 
in the court yard of the Executive Mansion : 

"Gentlemen of the Governor's Guards : I have sent for 
you under peculiar circumstances, which will be stated in a 
few remarks. I am Chief Executive of South Carolina, the 
head of the government. My duty is to have the laws en- 
forced. When the civil authorities become powerless the 
militia are the only resource of the government to restore 
order. When my right hand stretched forth night before 
Lasl to command the peace, endeavoring to restore order, 
you, representing that arm, were paralyzed by a mob here, 
when my effort and desire was to send you to Darlington to 
repress another mob. I have for fourten years been a mili- 
tiaman, and I know, perhaps better than any of you, as citi- 
zen soldiers, how you must feel with reference to the posi- 
tion you now occupy. You stand before the State in dis- 
grace ; as men who have refused to obey the order of your 
superior officers. You have been organized for a half cen- 
tury, and this is the first time in your history this thing has 
occurred. 

" I have been told by those who were present that it was not 
your fault ; that until Bishop Capers made his unfortunate 
speech, you had resisted the pressure brought to bear upon 
you by your fathers and your kinsmen, and were ready to 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 45 

obey your Governor. You disobeyed them and disappointed 
me. I have sent for you, not to criticise you or to say any- 
thing to please you; I want to have a plain talk. I repre- 
sent in a great degree a faction which controls the State, 
while you represent the other side, and because of the pres- 
sure of the public opinion brought to bear upon you, is the 
reason you occupy the position you now do. Let's discuss 
this question and show you the error in which our commu- 
nity, as well as yourselves, perhaps, are laboring under. The 
Dispensary Law was passed by the Legislature, by the ma- 
jority of the representatives of the people. It is a law until 
the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional. 

" The place to fight it is at the ballot box and in the courts, 
and not with bullets. Am I, as Chief Executive of the State, 
authorized by the General Assembly to enforce that law, to 
stand here and see those appointed to uphold it killed and 
dogged and hunted like wild beasts? and when I order the 
militia to go there, to be opposed by the sentiment of the 
towns where the whiskey and bar men live and paralyze the 
military? Thank God, South Carolina is safe to-day, be- 
cause she has soldiers who will obey orders. No, gentlemen, 
you live in Columbia. My purpose and desire, if you evince 
the proper spirit, is to show Columbia I bear no malice; that 
I trust her citizens when they are in cold blood. I want to 
say, if I will be allowed to do so, that in restoring your 
arms, I furnish a guarantee that the hot heads who have 
been preaching strife and discord down the street are quelled. 

" But before I do that my duty is to see that I don't en- 
trust arms to unworthy hands. If you can not obey orders 
issued by the authorities in a proper way, of course you are 
useless to the State, and the money that has been expended 
on you has been wasted. Now, without exacting any pledges, 
without making any promises, as a matter simply of duty, I 
desire to ask you gentlemen, one and all, if your arms are re- 
stered to you, and you are made again one of the leading 
companies of this State, gnd the disgace and stigma staining 
your brows washed off, can I rely upon you? If I can't rely 



46 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

upon you, if there are any members of this company so lost 
to the duties of citizenship that they will not respond to pro- 
per orders, they are unworthy to be soldiers, and should 
resign from the company. If there is a man in your com- 
pany who feels he is not ready to obey orders, any orders 
given by me, let it be made known, because our duty to 
South Carolina will not allow him. 

"At this point Private Moore, son of Dr. T. T. Moore, un- 
buckled his bayonet and threw it at the feet of the Governor. 
He was quickly followed by four others. Captain Bateman 
checked the impulse of the remainder of his men until the 
Governor had finished his remarks. Colonel Wilie Jones 
also endeavored to keep the men in line, and as the bayonets 
would strike the ground at the feet of Governor Tillman, 
the Colonel would remark : 'Men, don't do that.' Governor 
Tillman turned to the Captain of the company and said : 
'Captain, if these gentlemen don't realize and understand the 
situation, it is best for them to do this, because I don't want 
any soldier who cannot obey orders. You know that. I 
want it thoroughly understood that if the Governor's Guards 
cannot be trusted the Governor should know it. I under- 
stand that these gentlemen who have discarded their arms 
mean to inform me that they will not obey orders if they do 
not suit them. I admire their action.' 

"At this juncture nine of the company threw down their 
bayonets and left the mansion grounds. This left eight 
men remaining. Governor Tillman addressed Captain Bate- 
man again, saying: 'You have a neuclus for a company. I 
restore you your guns. You will report at the Penitentiary 
to General Richbourg, who has been given orders to restore 
you your arms. Is it satisfactory, or have you any ques- 
tions to ask?" 

The following was delivered on Sunday afternoon, March 
31, 1894, to three hundred militia on the eve of their de- 
parture to the Darlington Riot : 

"As Chief Executive of South Carolina, I wish to say a 
few words to you before your departure. I thank you for the 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 47 

promptness and zeal displayed by you in responding to the 
call of duty. Many of you have doubts as to the justice of 
the cause for which you go. You are Keforrn Democrats and 
Antis, but all South Carolinians, thank God. The reason of 
your going to Darlington is caused by the Dispensary law, 
and it is the law as long as it stands on the statute books un- 
til repealed or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme 
Court. 

"The newspapers have sown the seed of discord by teach- 
ing you that there are portions of the law which invade pri- 
vate rights. They know that when they say that they lie. 
The right to search private houses on a warrant is as old as 
the law itself. They know that they are not telling the 
truth when they try to make you believe that these men in 
Darlington were defending their liberties. I said in my 
message to the Legislature that a big force of constables 
would not be necessary if the police of the towns would en- 
force the law ; but they would not do it. The Dispensary is 
not the issue now, but so long as it is on the statutes, so help 
me God, I intend to enforce it. It is not a question of poli- 
tics to be fought out by ball and powder, but by the ballot 
box. So much for the opinion that you are going to uphold 
tyranny. 

" When the news came of the trouble at Darlington, God 
knows I was never more shocked . When the officers of the 
law were shot down I was horrified. The sheriff telegraphed 
me that he was powerless. My first and natural impulse 
was to appeal to the military of Columbia. What did they 
do? They surrendered ingloriously the honor of being in 
service of the State. But thank God there are men left who 
will obey orders and are not to be dissuaded from duty by 
political opinions. Two companies at Manning and Sumter 
did likewise when the action in Columbia was known. We 
then see the spectacle of the Adjutant General of the State 
running over the State trying to get men to go and do their 
duty. I then ordered out the Fourth Brigade of Charles- 
ton, that crack command, and all they did was to dicker 



48 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

with me as to what was their duty. Those cowards in 
Charleston did like those of Columbia. 

" Without a company at my command, I began to cast 
about and see what I could do to uphold the dignity of the 
law. I thank God I have found them in you. 

" You are going on a delicate and dangerous mission. You 
must remember that the Darlington people are your fellow- 
citizens, but they are in insurrection, and it is necessary for 
you to go there to uphold the law. I see that they have 
gone to work and destroyed a State Dispensary. Nobody 
did this but the ex-barbeepers and their hirelings. You go 
as an arm of the law, and you must treat Darlington people 
with consideration. But if you are ordered to shoot you 
must do it, or anarchy will prevail in the State. I hope to 
restore you to your homes as early as possible, but the law 
must be upheld, or the State government will be the laugh- 
ing stock of the world. This ought to be a proud day for 
you. In after years you can hand it down as a heritage to 
your children, that you went to Darlington on Tillman's 
orders and you are proud of it." 

Extracts from the Governor's first speech delivered in the 
campaign of 1890, at Ridgeway, S. C, May 4th: 

"I wish to call your attention to the evil of the condition 
of affairs for several years after we got rid of negro domina- 
tion. Even now men are trembling in their boots at the 
remembrance of it. Anything like friction in the party was 
frowned down upon by common consent. We thought we had 
better pull together, even though there were differences be- 
tween us ; and we had better pull together now than to bring 
back that state of ruin and rottenness which we endured 
from '68 to '76. Our legislators — public men, gentlemen — 
did not wait to be asked to discuss public questions with 
you, but went about from place to place and asked votes, 
purely from personal popularity. You voted for your friends, 
or the fellow that came along with a sleek tongue — the 
sweetest flatterer. The consequence is, we have brought up 
a race of moral cowards ; men afraid of their own shadows ; 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 49 

men that are to-day on the fence in every issue. They are 
on it now in this Farmers' Movement, and as soon as they 
find out which side is the larger, just see how they will slide 
down and flop off. Therefore, you see, the necessity in the 
Democratic party, in order to preserve the party, to have a 
fair and open discussion of the issues in the opening ; that 
we educate the people to what is right and to their interest, 
then let them decide at the ballot box who is to represent 
that interest — who shall be Governor of South Carolina. 

"I want to tell you right here, in this campaign, if you 
have a man seeking for your suffrage, who is ready to run 
with the hare and bark with the hound, spit him out of your 
mouths, for he is not the one to represent free people. If 
they cannot come out fairly and squarely and take their po- 
sition, they are time serving politicians — place-hunters; that 
is what they are. 

"Now, the farmers simply suggest a man to canvass the 
State and take his chances along with the rest, and oh, what 
a howl it has raised ! 

' ' I want to warn you that right now it is the purpose of the 
'Ring' to control the next Democratic Convention if possi- 
ble, and there has got to be a fight to keep them from doing 
it. I notice that some of you have organized a Tillman 
club. I don't want you to organize any Tillman clubs. 
Stick to your local Democratic clubs ; send your men to your 
County Conventions to name delegates to do your bidding at 
the State Convention, whether it be to nominate me or some 
other man. 

"Another thing I wish to say to you is this: I presume a 
large number of my friends here belong to the Alliance. The 
Alliance is not a political machine, and you ought not to use 
it in politics. The Alliance can do its duty and you can do 
yours. The fight is in the party, and not in the Alliance. 
To drag the Alliance into this thing would seriously injure 
it. 

"Now, gentlemen,' I seek to get on the platform which the 
farmers have put me on to talk to you. I cannot to-day do 



50 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

more than talk to you about one or two planks in that plat- 
form." 

[Here the speaker touched on the re-apportionment and 

question of electing delegates by primary. He presented 

a tabulated statement by Counties, in which the inequality 

injustice done certain Counties by the plan then in 

as 8 wn.] 

" It is a maxim of law that 'no man can be allowed to take 

advantage 'if his own wrong.' But two succeeding Legisla- 

latures have been chosen under this iniquitous arrangement, 

and a third will necessarily follow. Two nominating conven- 

and elec - te officers, and the result of 

the coming contest for supremacy in the party may be 

ourteen ' tion now unlawfully 

and unjustly held by Char - . Richland and Hampton. 

"The men who have thus robbed their brethren and 

usurped their political riglr- the Legislature, on 

the] omy, to chai - ustitution instead of 

tak: _ - - - 3 to allow the United States census t<> 

used. Then, on purely technical grounds — the adroit 

stitutaonal amendment enabling lawy - 

split hairs about words, though there could be no dispute 

at facts — after the amendment was adopted these men 

still refused to do justice. 

•• \ '>peal from the Legislature to the people, and 

we demand our rights. Upon the simple basis of popula- 

. without c . white preponderance, which is very 

heavy, we demand that equality in the party and that fair 

play which alone can prevent danger of disruption. 

•• ' >:ie white man in Spartanburg or Edgefield should cer- 
tainly be equal to one negro in Charleston or Columbia. 
And as we were robbed of our representation under the Con- 
stitutional amendment upon a technicality, so we can now 
demand a reapportionment with both the letter and the 
spirit of the law upon our side. The Constitution of the 
Democratic party provides as follows : 

"'The State Convention shall be composed of deh_ 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 51 

from each County in the numerical proportion to which that 
County is entitled in both branches of the General Assem- 
bly.'" 

" No one disputes that, according to the United States 
census (which the Constitution now recognizes as the legal 
basis of representation) seven Counties are each entitled to 
one more member of the House of Representatives, and, con- 
sequently, to two more delegates to the State Convention 
than they now have. Mark the words. It says, 'to which 
that County is entitled,'' not which that County has. And 
we demand apportionment 'as it is nominated in the bond.' 

"Now, will the Democratic Executive Committee right 
this wrong themselves? Will they take steps to have it 
righted, or will they bow to the rule-or-ruin policy of Charles- 
ton and Columbia? 

" Suppose in this campaign I should carry the Counties of 
Greenville, Spartanburg, Laurens, Sumter, Marlboro and 
Edgefield — and it is not at all impossible — and that Rich- 
land and Charleston should oppose me; suppose that the 
contest shall be decided against me, under the existing ap- 
portionment, by twelve votes. What a spectacle will be pre- 
sented to the people of unfairness among those who should 
be as brethren ! What heart-burnings ! 

" Is this the compact we made with each other in '76? I 
could only submit, and I would do so cheerfully, for under 
no circumstances would I do anything to jeopardize Anglo- 
Saxon unity. 

" Accursed, thrice accursed, be the man who would build 
his greatness on his country's ruin! Accursed, thrice ac- 
cursed, be those who in South Carolina, confronted as we are 
by dangers, engender these feelings of discontent! 

" The Chairman of the State Democratic Committee de- 
clares that this demand, and the demand , for the election of 
delegates to the State Convention by primary, are 'utterly 
impracticable and unattainable.' 

" I have pointed out how even the letter of the Democratic 
Constitution allows the Committee to make a just apportion- 



52 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

ment, and Gen. McCrady suggests a way to remedy all these 
evils and do away with all danger of a split in the party, 
viz., by calling a convention at an early day to revise and 
amend the party Constitution and provide machinery for a 
square, honest expression next summer of the will of the 
white men of the State. Democratic unity depends on fair 
play and honesty in our primaries and Conventions, and 
Col. Hoyt and his Committee will have much to answer for 
if they fail to do their duty. 

"While accusing me of Mahonism, and thus trying to poi- 
son the people against me. signs arc not wanting in plenty 
to show that the 'Ring' will hesitate at nothing, will take 
any and all risks to compass my defeat. And I believe that 
nothing but my election by an overwhelming vote will pre- 
vent them bolting the ticket if I am nominated. 'The chip 
will split from the log' rather than surrender the govern- 
ment to the people. 

"The Columbia Register has already declared its ability 
to promise twenty-eight votes in t heconvenl ions from Hamp- 
ton, Horry, Georgetown and Beauforl to any candidate who 
opposes iic; and the question arises as to whether these 
Counties are 'rotten boroughs.' and if so. who owns them? 

"Then General .McCrady boldly charges, and the Charles- 
ton World has also made tin- accusation, that the 
people of Charleston 'are dissatisfied because they do not 
think that their primary elections are fairly conducted;' 
bu1 the managing editor of the News and Courier, who is 
a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of 
Charleston, and who is reported as saying lie would 'prefer 
to see a Radical made Governor rather than Tillman,' does 
noi think General McCrady's plan for securing harmony in 
the party, and guarding againsl a danger which all acknowl- 
edge, is 'practical/ His committee appoints managers of 
election to help conduct these primaries and count those bal- 
lots in secret, and he wants no interference or advice from 
without or within. 

"He does not 'think that a general primary election is 



EXTKACTS FKOM SPEECHES. 53 



possible, or that it should be attempted this year.' He is 
willing, however, to 'provide the necessary regulations for 
the conduct of such an election in 1802 ! ! !" 

' 'A free vote and fair count' and reapportionment must 
all go over till 1892 for the benefit of Charleston's bosses. 

'Next, we have the immortal 'twenty-one conference' who 
glory in wearing the badge of servitude to the Ring, and who 
thus deliver themselves : 

' 'Believing that upon the perpetuity of the Democratic 
party in South Carolina, as at present constituted, depends 
the peace and prosperity of the State; believing that the 
method of nominating State officers by that party in the 
past have been fair, honorable and just to all classes of our 
citizens," etc. 

" These patriots declare that they can see nothing wrong 
whatever. They don't object to Charleston and Columbia 
having twelve more votes in Convention than they are 'enti- 
tled' to. Oh, no! Electing delegates to the State Conven- 
tion by primary or nominating State officers by a direct 
vote of the people is an innovation entirely too Democratic 
for these 'aristocrats,' and would overthrow the 'peace and 
prosperity of the State.' And they boldly avow these aristo- 
cratic principles and endorse injustice, while crying aloud in 
the same breath the Alliance slogan : 'Equal rights to All; 
special privileges to none!' They spell 'All' with a big A, 
and yet proclaim their belief that 'All' the people are not fit 
to be allowed to choose their rulers ! They are the apostles 
of 'existing institutions and believe nominations by the 
Democratic party, as at present constituted,' Convention sys- 
tem, rotten boroughs, secret ballot— counting and all — the 
very essence of good government ! ! ! One cannot help ex- 
claiming with Madame Roland: '0 Democracy, what crimes 
are committed in thy name !' 

"But these twenty-one agricultural 'aristocrats' don't 
stop at this. Hear them further: 'The success of the "Till- 
man movement" under the 'Shell call' would mean the dis- 
credit of the Democratic party by itself. It would embroil 



54 EXTE4CTS FROM SPEECH KS. 

the party — make local quiet impossible, and check the indus- 
trial development of the State. 

"The only comment I will make on this startling proposi- 
tion is to ask these patriots, who are the self-constituted 
'delegates' to a conference which has assumed the guardian- 
ship of the Democratic party, to bring forward their proofs 
of accusations made by Captain Shell or myself against the 
State officers of 'corruption'; and, further, to advance rea- 
sons why my Domination as Governor of South Carolina 
would be followed by such dire consequences, and 1 will then 
show that they forcibly make us make accusations in order 
t<> deny them, and also themselves make assertions which 
they can not justify. The State officers have never been ac- 
cused of corruption by either Captain Shell or myself, and 
these men know it. And if the 'Shell call' is a slander and 
libel on the party, why don't they prove the falsity of the 
charges? 

■• This is a fight of the people againsl the politicians — of 
the Democratic party against a ring which has usurped its 
machinery and functions, and we waid more Democratic 
principles and policy and Less prating about the 'Democratic 
party.* We want more of the blessing of self-govern- 
ineiit and liberty, and less of the dry husks of party tyrrany 
and broken promises." 

The following are portions of the speech delivered at the 
laying of the corner-stone of the Winthrop College, Rock 
Bill, S. C, May L2, 1894: 

"This is a great and glorious day for South Carolina. It 
is a day of promise and bright hope for York County; bul 
the men and women whose breasts should swell and throb 
with deepest emotions of graduation and pride are the men 
and women of Rock Hill — those whose pluck, self-reliance, 
far-sighted business instincts and patriotism made them 
enter the race for the prize and come out winners. If, as 
is already (dearly apparent, the prize is a greater, more 
valuable one than they themselves ever dreamed, then I 
know every one of you who come to celebrate the public 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 55 



installation of this grand institution will join me in congrat- 
ulations to the people of this ambitious, progressive little 
city, and your hearty sympathy is shown by this outpouring 
of people to witness her triumph. 

"We have met to celebrate with fitting ceremonies the 
laying of the corner-stone of this noble State institution of 
learning. It is, as it were, the public and official birth of 
the Woman's College. As chairman of the Board of Trus- 
tees the task has fallen to me— and I perform it willingly— 
to make a few introductory remarks. And first let me say 
that in casting about in my mind for something fitting the 
occasion, I thought it would interest you to know something 
about the ceremony itself, and I went to work to look up 
the subject. I soon found that I had gotton into very deep 
wa ter— so deep in fact that I have never touched bottom— 
for although I have ransacked encyclopedias and Masonic 
dictionaries, I can find nothing very clear on the subject, 
and absolutely nothing as to its origin. We read every day 
of the laying of the corner-stone of this monument or that 
edifice or church, and it is always done by the Free Masons; 
but the Masons themselves, while they employ a most im- 
posing ritual and use symbols that are very impressive, are 
equally in the dark with ourselves as to when, where, or by 

whom the ceremony was instituted. 

* * * * * * 

"The history of higher education in South Carolina for men 
is one of which our people may well be proud. The South 
Carolina College at Columbia was founded in 1801, ninety- 
three years ago, and it has always deserved and received 
handsome support from the State. The Citadel, another 
school for boys, was established fifty-one years ago. Until 
within the last eight years these two colleges, which were 
promptly reopened as soon as the white people regained pos- 
session of the government in South Carolina in 1876, were 
considered ample by those who had control, to supply all 
needs of our people for higher education by the State. 

"But the wheels of progress were moving, even in South 



56 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECH! - 

■lina. and. aftei - : protracted and itl r rtrng- 
: - :ool for boys — Clem- eg — - - 
188 : - mbly, and opened 
re to sto - - - L is a new depart- 
ure. The - rich have actual 

ho plead for it. and who have opened it so success- 

- - _■ - ■ : - .: I : the 

apr - a. It if read 

anc x>l in e * ------ - - king to fit 

while giving 

_- od practical drill in E . - - It was con- 

o opp< - - _- Jided that the 

man should hni- 

r special tx - rundamental idea of 

Jam is - go togel 

_• drilled - und 

brain g the 
- 

- - -urn, on the 

3 court, 1 
all - - -ming la 

rarm. in the work-shop and from 
;- 

. - _ ^nd that our 

on, 
•i corps of 
ho hav- ir way 1 

ae the S 

g edat to i - - .-us 

that ten montL- - 

ring _•- - - . un- 

of them lem- 

Februai you will give - to 

- - which b - 

a - I have reason to know that I trane rmation 

g on - youths 

g - 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 



that God helps those who help themselves ; that success in 
life requires self-reliance and labor ; that work is honorable ; 
that work is necessary : and that South Carolina will never 
achieve greatness except through the efforts of her own chil- 
dren ; that knowledge of books is good, but not the only 
knowledge that is necessary: that knowledge of things is 
better; and that skill, energy and perseverance, with diver- 
sified pursuits, will alone make South Carolina great and 
prosperous. 

•'We find when we come to recapitulate, that the South 
Carolina College, hoary with age and rendered illustrious by 
the famous men it has educated, stands strong and sturdy 
among its clustering elms in our Capital City. The Citadel, 
equally honored by its alumni, is doing its special work in 
Charleston. Clemson, which is spanned by such a bright 
rainbow of promise, is fanned by the mountain breezes of 
Oconee. All for boy-. 

■'What have you done for our women? Where does the 
State educate its future mothers? The answer to the one 
question is "nothing:" the answer to the other is. alas, too 
often, "nowhere." But. thank God. this great wrong will 
soon be righted. This reproach on our justice and our 
statesmanship will no longer cause us to blush. We have 
waited long — too long — but tardy justice will be done to the 
sisters of the boys for whose education the State has spent 
millions of dollars, while the girls have received nothing. 
"Grander in design than any or all of them, larger and more 
elaborate in architecture, more beautiful and ornamental, as 
is fitting, the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of 
South Carolina will ere long pierce the heavens with its 
stately spire, and the sky of York will be spanned by another 
bright rainbow of promise that will attract the gaze of the 
people not only of this State but of many States. The build- 
ing, whose corner-stone we lay to-day. is one of the largest 
single school edifices in the South, and when the two dormi- 
tories, which are required to complete the plan, are erected. 



58 EXTEACTS FEOM SPEECHES. 

it will be the largest woman's college of its kind in the 
Union. 

"Be it said to the credit of the men of the State that, 
whether from shame at their long neglect, or from a sturdy 
realization of the necessity and importance of the system of 
training which we propose to inaugurate here, there has not 
been one dissenting voice thus far raised against the building 
and equipment of this college, since the idea first took shape 
three years ago. 

"I know I voice the sentiment of every man, woman and 
child in this audience and in South Carolina, that it is al- 
together fit and right that we have honored Calhoun's friend 
and eulogist by giving his name to Clemson's twin sister. 
And I know you will all unite with me in the prayer that 
this grand, good old man may be spared at least to see the 
fruition of our hopes in the assembling within these walls of 
the 600 South Carolina girls for whom we are preparing. 
Neither of these men can receive any honor from the asso- 
ciation of their names with the two colleges. Let us hope 
that the youths of our State, from this association, will 
emulate their illustrious example. 

"This school is to be known as the Winthrop Normal and 
Industrial College. These two words, 'normal' and 'indus- 
trial,' are the two lodestars which must guide our people out 
of the bog of poverty, ignorance and stagnation which sur- 
round us. Within their meaning lies our only hope — the 
one says educate, the other means work. I would not be 
understood as claiming or intending that the women of our 
State do not work, or that they are all ignorant. In fact, 
some years ago, in discussing the causes of our depressed 
financial condition, I made the assertion, and I stick to it 
yet, that only two classess of our population did their share 
of work. No observant or fair-minded person will deny that 
our wives and daughters have met the changed conditions 
wrought by the emancipation of the slaves with much greater 
success and fortitude than the men, and that they do a 
much larger proportion of work than we do. On the other 



EXTKACTS FROM SPEECHES. 59 

hand, it is equally patent that the bulk of the labor among 
the colored people is performed by men. 

"We desire to say that we fully realize sid understand the 
great need of better teachers — teachers trained specifically 
for that vocation. There are hundreds and thousands of 
fairly well educated women in our State, many of whom are 
following the noble avocation of teaching. But the mere 
possession of knowledge does not carry with it the power of 
imparting it, of exciting emulation, of making study inter- 
esting, of training children how to think and exercise their 
reasoning powers. I have often thought that teachers are 
born, not made; and we occasionally meet with those who 
have a genius for imparting knowledge without any normal 
training. But the improved systems which have been 
adopted in the Winthrop School, and the facility with which 
all the graduates of that school obtain positions at more 
remunerative wages than others of equal education who 
have not had its advantages, are proof s-that normal training 
is an absolute necessity and invaluable. Without reflect- 
ing in the slightest upon the work which has hitherto been 
done in this line, it is our purpose to enlarge and improve 
on that work, and it will be our ambition to have such pro- 
fessors, and inaugurate such a curriculum, as shall not only 
furnish facilities for persons already educated to get this 
normal training, but shall take the young girl fresh from 
home and carry her through all the classes up to the highest 
proficiency in the normal department, conferring degrees for 
the varying degrees of proficiency. There will never be any 
restrictions as to the number of normal students, but we 
will take all who apply for this specific training, from what- 
ever part of the country. 

"But along with the normal, co-ordinated and of equal 
importance, will be the industrial feature of the school. 
Somebody long ago said 'knowledge is power.' In these 
latter days, we have also come to learn that knowledge is 
also money independence. And knowledge, coupled with 
skill, backed by industry, will always insure any woman, 



60 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 

however fragile, absolute exemption from want and poverty. 
Every father who thinks aright, would have his daughter, 
if thrown on her own resources, able to earn her own sup- 
port. The effects of slavery upon our habits and customs 
are, however, still plainly visible. We are disinclined as a 
people to have our women leave home to seek their fortunes 
or enter into industrial life. The consequence is, that with 
the system of education which has hitherto prevailed, pre- 
paring women solely to adorn the drawing-room and shine 
in society, our women have been altogether helpless and our 
system of education has been a fatal blunder. How many 
thousands of our women, tenderly nurtured, carefully 
trained at expensive boarding schools, have found themselves 
by the death of father, brother or husband thrown on their 
own resources, left to battle with the cold, hard world, by 
the loss of their protectors? Every day we come across 
some of these, and while an increasing number have found 
positions of late years as clerks in stores, the vast army have 
had no other avenues open to them except work as seam- 
stresses or in cotton factories. In these latter, owing to 
the fact that the manufacturing industries of our State have 
developed only in the coarser fabrics, their labor has not 
been very remunerative, and it is sought only as the dernier 
resort. Any one who has visited the Northern cities and 
factories is struck with the painful contrast in the dress, 
demeanor, intelligence and evident prosperity of the skilled 
female labor, compared wit h that which we see here in the 
South. We can and must change this. 

"There will be no conflict of rivalry between the Normal 
and Industrial departments. In fact, the normal students 
will be required to take industrial training in order that we 
may be able to have manual training taught by the Win- 
throp graduates in our common schools, when this feature 
shall be grafted upon our school system, as we hope to see 
done ere long. 

"Now, I am going to do some very plain talking. While 
our aspirations and ambitions are all in the direction of fit- 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 61 

ting women for self-support, both as teachers and as follow- 
ers of industrial avocations, I want it understood that I, at 
least, am irrevocably opposed to anything being done or 
taught here that shall tend in the slightest degree to rub the 
blooin off the peach. God forbid that this school shall ever 
send forth a woman who has been unsexed. We would have 
the clinging, helpless creature able to stand erect and walk ; 
we would have the trembling bird given wings — to fly from 
home — seek avenues of independence, until she can find a 
mate and build a nest for herself; but never, never have 
any of the daughters of South Carolina, who shall be trained 
in these walls, by reason of the strength and self-reliance 
which we hope to impart here, become other than helpful 
wives and happy and self-respecting mothers. Woman's 
special province in life is that of a home-maker. Her greatest 
glory, her proudest distinction, the object of her creation in 
fact, is that of motherhood. "Woman, God's last, best gift 
to man," is associated with all that is brightest and noblest 
and best in men's lives. As daughter, sister, sweetheart, 
wife, mother, she is an inspiration and a solace. As a wife, 
she (doubles man's joys and halves his sorrows, simply by 
sharing them ; but the highest, purest, most self-sacrificing 
love in the world is that of a mother. It is to fit women to 
be mothers — high, noble, properly trained mothers, the natu- 
ral [and proper guardians of children, that this school is 
founded. We will start in that path, give it the bias and 
direction to which it should be held, and thus best discharge 
the high duty imposed upon us by those who have placed us 
in control. 

"Contrast the picture I have drawn, of a woman trained in 
all the domestic arts and economics, and some bread-win- 
ning occupation; self-reliant and strong, yet withal modest, 
self-respecting and lady-like, with what we sometimes see, 
oftener read about — a strong minded, bold, brazen, pert, 
self-asserting female, prating of 'woman's right,' 'man's 
tyranny and selfishness,' the 'degradation of nursing chil- 



62 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 



dren,' and so on, ad nauseam. The first, a picture to illus- 
trate Wordsworth's noble lines: 

" 'She was a phantom of delight, 

"When first she gleamed upon my sight, 
A lovely apparition, sent 

e a moment's ornament; 
H 3 as e . twilight fair, 

Like twilight, too, her dusky hair, 
But all things else about her drawn 

:n May time and the cheerful dawn." 
'•This is the picture of his sweetheart when the beautiful 
vision first crossed his path; now read the poet's tribute to 
his wife in the next verse: 

'A creature not too bright or good 
For human nature's daily food; 
For i ra - - 3, 3imple wiles, 

Praise, blame, love kisses, tears and smiles; 
The reason firm, the temperate will, 
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill : 
A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
To warn, to comfort, and to command.' 
the other I have no fit description, for poets have 
n<ver sung her praises ; but her position in the estimation 
of all right thinking men and women can be pretty well set 
forth in last line of a piece of doggerel brought home from 
school the other day by my little six-year-old daughter, who 
took great delight in repeating it: 

■ T know a little girl 
With a little curl 
Hanging right down her forehead : 
When she is good 
She is very, very good, 
But when she is bad she is horrid.' 
"Before closing I want to give emphasis to one thought. I 
have already pointed out the unanimity with which men 
of all classes, conditions and ideas have joined hands in aid- 



EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 63 



ing to erect this school . It is the one thing and the only 
thing upon which the men of South Carolina are at present 
united. Only alluding, in passing, to the division and bitter- 
ness which exist among our people, allow me to express the 
hope that this point of union may grow and spread; that 
the inspirations of this day may prove a harbinger and help 
to hasten the restoration of that harmony and friendly feel- 
ing which once existed, and which must necessarily return 
before we can have any great degree of prosperity. Our 
interests are one, our ancestry is the same — let us yield to 
the rule of justice and reason and the government of the 
majority; for -we be brethren. Why not dwell together as 
brethren? 

"As in the days of old the ancient Sabines were brought to 
peace with the Romans by the women who had been seized 
and borne off captives to become the wives of the latter; so 
may the women of South Carolina become our peacemakers. 
Let them take hold of the work in earnest — go to all the 
campaign meetings in full force to make their fathers, hus- 
bands and brothers behave themselves ; and at the end of 
Summer we shall have something better than prohibition or 
sub-treasury, 

" 'Peace in all our hearts, 
Peace in all our homes." 

At Bennettsville, S. C, just nine years after he had first 
attacked the "oligarchy," in this same place, Governor Till- 
man summed up some of the few things that Reform had 
done : 

"The first thing Reform did was to choke Coosaw into 
submission ; next, the people were given the right to see can- 
didates before voting for them ; having Railroad Commission- 
ers elected by the people direct; reapportionment of the 
State; primary elections ; refunding the State debt; build- 
ing Clemson College and the Woman's College ; collection 
of railroad and bank taxes, and making corporations obey 
the law after we had a hard fight ; calling a Constitutional 
Convention, and last and greatest, the Dispensary law." 



